Joseph W. Kennedy
| Joseph William Kennedy | |
|---|---|
Joseph William Kennedy
|
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| Born |
May 30, 1916 Nacogdoches, Texas |
| Died | May 5, 1957 (aged 40) St. Louis, Missouri |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions |
Los Alamos National Laboratory Washington University in St. Louis |
| Alma mater |
University of California, Berkeley University of Kansas Stephen F. Austin State University |
| Thesis | Studies of nuclear isomerism in tellurium, element 43, and zinc (1939) |
| Doctoral advisor | George Ernest Gibson |
| Known for | First Isolation of Plutonium |
| Notable awards | Medal for Merit (1946) |
Joseph William Kennedy (May 30, 1916 – May 5, 1957) was an American chemist who was a co-discoverer of plutonium, along with Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan and Arthur Wahl. During World War II he was head of the CM (Chemistry and Metallurgy) Division at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos laboratory, where he oversaw research onto the chemistry and metallurgy of uranium and plutonium. After the war, he was recruited as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is credited with transforming a university primarily concerned with undergraduate teaching into one that also boasts strong graduate and research programs. He died of cancer of the stomach at the age of 40.
Joseph William Kennedy was born in Nacogdoches, Texas on May 30, 1916, the son of Joseph and Mattie Kennedy. He attended Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, and the University of Kansas, which awarded him a Master of Arts (MA) degree. He then entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, writing his thesis on "Studies of nuclear isomerism in tellurium, element 43, and zinc", under the supervision of George Ernest Gibson.
In February 1940, Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan produced plutonium-239 through the bombardment of uranium. In their experiments bombarding uranium with deuterons, they observed the creation of neptunium, element 93, which then underwent beta-decay to form a new element, plutonium, with 94 protons. Kennedy built a series of detectors and counters to verify the presence of plutonium. He used mica sliced razor thin to produce a window to count alpha particle emissions, and ionization chamber with a magnetic field to separate the beta particles from the neptunium from alpha particles from the plutonium.
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